1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to electrical connector apparatus used to interconnect twisted pair wires and more particularly to the interconnection of shielded twisted pair cables. This invention is also related to modular assemblies for disconnecting one or more twisted wire pairs for rewiring, testing or other diagnostics. Furthermore, this invention is related to cross connect and disconnect apparatus that are used in wiring closets.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A common practice in wiring commercial buildings is to provide one or more wiring closets in which incoming twisted wire cables are connected to outgoing twisted pair cables. For example, incoming cables or risers can enter a wiring closet and there be connected to outgoing or horizontal cables that are attached to peripheral equipment that relies upon or must communicate with the service supplied by the incoming cable. Telecommunications wiring has long been deployed in buildings in this manner. As twisted pair wiring has been increasingly used in local area networks or other data networking or communications applications, the same equipment has been employed. However, conventional unshielded twisted pair cable may not be able to support all high speed communications applications. Category 5 cables offer one approach to improving the transmission rates for unshielded twisted pairs. Shielded twisted pair cable offers another means for supporting high data communications speeds. For example, T1 cables with data rates of from approximately 1.5 to 2.0 Mbit/s can operate satisfactorily at higher frequencies than unshielded twisted pair cables. However, conventional cross connect and disconnect equipment used for unshielded twisted pair cables do not provide a means for conveniently connecting the shields of all shielded or screened cables to a common reference potential or ground. The conventional practice is for the drain wires in all cables to be separately connected to a central ground or for the drain wires to be connected to jumpers which in turn lead to a ground reference point. Another approach is to use two standard 66 Blocks or cross connect blocks with a shielded twisted pair jumper wire connecting corresponding positions on the two blocks. The drain wires in this jumper are then connected to drain wires in incoming and out going cables and is then wired to ground. However, this approach is relatively labor intensive and the result is an unsystematic wire maze that is not easy to rewire.